Grassroots football on Merseyside – in pictures

In Merseyside, much as it is up and down the country, grassroots football is struggling in the face of limited finances and poor facilities. The Football Federation receives only 1% of the Premier League's broadcasting rights and the 'Save Grassroots Football' e-petition which requires 100,000 signatures to prompt a debate in the Commons about grassroots football is about to fall short of its target. Is there any hope for the future of the amateur game? Christopher Thomond spent the day with Woolton FC in Liverpool to find out
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Kenny Saunders (pictured) of Woolton FC hopes for a radical change in grassroots football: "Down at grassroots level the outlook on Merseyside and throughout the country is bleak. The next Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard or Gareth Bale are going to be sitting at home because their parents can't afford to send them to football. We have to change that but it's hard and it's getting harder.”